Employees from Mount Pleasant Primary School’s Early Years team have successfully completed The Hanen Program ‘Learning Language and Loving It’ for Early Childhood Educators.

Charlotte Houghton, Beverley Roberts and Lindsay Dunst recently completed the program, to build on their skills and strategies for developing children’s language and social skills, and were held up as examples of excellent practice.

The training was designed to help equip early years practitioners with strategies and techniques to ensure that every child in the classroom has the best opportunities for learning. It recognises that children’s needs are diverse; some engage more than others, and there may be some who’ll be harder to teach. Through research based strategies, and taking into account different learning and communication styles, and special educational needs, the course taught a range of techniques. These included encouraging the use of everyday activities and tuning into children’s interests to follow their lead, promoting interaction and facilitating language learning to build children’s language and social skills.  

Charlotte, Beverley and Lindsay completed the course through a series of online and group training sessions. The training included videotaping and feedback sessions, and these videos from Mount Pleasant’s team were regularly used as exemplars of good practice.

Mount Pleasant offers a 29 place nursery, and its Early Years provision has an excellent reputation. Headteacher Alison Benge was delighted with the training outcome: “Charlotte, Bev and Lindsay have not only completed the course with flying colours, but their work was singled out and they were recognised for their approach and techniques. This is a great boost to our school and our Multi Academy Trust, and for our young children who will benefit massively from these enhanced skills.”